#lamakhatib

You walk into artist Lama Khatib's home and you are immediately in awe. The painfully melancholic eyes of the woman she so carefully etches into  her drawings, hangs effortlessly on the wall facing the front door, piercing through your soul, drawing you in to the home, like an industrial-strength magnet. This sense of immediacy of emotion flows through the rest of her Dubai home that she shares with her husband, as much as it does in her artworks. As we talked about her art, her home & her story, I realized quickly that this was no ordinary morning. And although I wasn't really prepared to be so jolted by emotion or inspiration as I sipped tea with her, I am now richer for it. Here are excerpts from our conversation, that in so many ways, continues on beyond this interview.

What was the moment you knew you wanted to be an artist? How do you sustain yourself as an artist? It was natural because I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember. I knew that I would be an artist somehow or another. But the thing is, I didn’t know I would take it as a career. Growing up I worked as a graphic designer & illustrator in advertising agencies. That was how I made my income. Until this day, although I left advertising in 2008, the act of “putting the butter on the proverbial bread on my table” is still mainly done through projects in collaboration with advertising agencies. I do choose the projects I want to work on, so I get to keep things fun and interesting for myself, that represent me as an artist. I create artworks for exhibitions, commissions & for myself.

There's a strong female energy in your work & the characters almost always tend to be female. Was this a conscious choice or did it just happen? It actually just happened and it’s also a conscious thing. I’m a woman, at the end of the day. When I was a girl, I was drawing young girls with big dresses and as I grew up, the characters grew up with me. They are autobiographical in some way. I felt like I needed to create a style that was mine alone. If you look at my work, I would want people to know that it’s a good craftsman creating a portrait but at the same time there has to be a bit of Lama in there, my personality & my point of view which sets it apart & makes it like a signature.

Every artist seems to go through their journey with self-doubt during the creative process. Do you have any & what does self-doubt look like for you? There’s always self-doubt for an artist; an artist is never sure. For me authenticity is the main thing. Whether a piece is perceived as good or bad, that doesn’t concern me, because that is the viewer’s journey with the art. That is not my journey. As long as I know I’ve been honest in making whatever it is that I’m making, then I’m sure. I do have self-doubt even in the form of asking myself if this is my best work, how I can push the limit a little bit more, am I done with this circle of work or shall I keep going – that is an ongoing thing. I’m also very moody, so I tend to move from piece to piece depending on how I’m feeling.

What are the stories in your work? The stories, come from what I’m feeling at that moment. Lately, my work is about longing for something, a deep sense of nostalgia. Longing, wishing to be somewhere else, exploring the themes of wanting to be in another dimension but not being able to because I’m a human being living in the physical world & the conflicted nature of that. So it really is a representation of where I am in my life. Five years down the line, of course my art will be very different, because I’ll be in a different stage of my life. So the themes & stories are always changing along with me. But I do have a love affair with nostalgia, it’s such a charming thing to look back. It’s magic. So it definitely will run through my artworks.

As an artist how important is your space? Have you curated it to feel a certain way or do you bring that energy? I bring the energy and the space brings the energy and reflects it back to me. It is important to make it mine. When we moved in here & I had my own studio, at the beginning I couldn’t relate with it. I just sat there. And after a while I started to do some sketches to try and connect with this new space. You kind of feel like you’re in a strange country & you have to acclimate and figure out how you can belong. So it’s definitely a give and take process.

What do you love most about your home? Any favourite pieces? I love everything. The coffee table is one of my favourite pieces in the house. It’s a bark of an actual tree and I love it because I have a piece of nature in my home. I’m a plant killer, so it’s nice to have something natural that I can’t kill. Although I’m not the type of person who gets attached to material things, I do have to surround myself with things that I love. I do believe in renewal, bringing in new things & energy, but when I live in a space, I make sure to love everything. I love every corner.

For more on Lama & her beautiful work: